Savannah Times, Volume 1

July 27 - Welcome to the Savannah Times, the e-newsletter for the 2004 Long Course
National Championship participants. We look forward to your arrival in
Savannah and hope your preparations are going well.

This is the first of a handful of notices that will come your way over the
next two weeks. While we do appreciate communication from you, please keep
in mind that we are VERY busy preparing for the meet and may not be able to
answer all inquiries.

SIXTH EVENT
Due to the anticipated length of the meet, all swimmers who entered six
events for this meet will have their designated sixth event dropped from the
meet program.

MEET NUMBERS
The number of entrants currently stands at 1,083 swimmers. In order to
expedite the meet, we will be using dive-over starts in events where
applicable.

CHECK-IN
All swimmers must check in for EVERY event they wish to swim. Check-in may
be done in person at the pool or via the on line check-in system. For more
details on check-in, along with check-in deadlines, go to
http://www.usms.org/comp/lcnats04/heats/checkin.php.
Due to the deck-seeding procedure, heat sheets will be posted on Thursday
and distributed daily Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

ESTIMATED TIMELINE
The projected timeline for the meet shows events concluding at the following
times. It is emphasized that these times are only an estimate and may vary
based on several factors and conditions:

RIVERBOAT SOCIAL
Our Saturday evening social looks to be great fun as roughly 320 swimmers
and guests are planning to attend. We will have the run of the Georgia
Queen, a triple-decker riverboat that will have food and entertainment on
each level!

Swimmers should be aware that events at the pool on Saturday may conflict
with the social plans. Due to the high turnout and expected conclusion time
on Saturday, the start of the social is being moved from 7:00 p.m. to 7:30
p.m. The final events on Saturday, the Medley Relays, are expected to start
at 6:35 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. for women and men, respectively. No refunds are
being granted for social tickets. A few additional social tickets will be
available on a first-come, first-served basis at registration.

VOLUNTEERS WELCOME
Several swimmers have written to express their interest in volunteering as a
timer or in some other capacity, along with volunteering a spouse or family
member in attendance. We appreciate the offer and will do all we can to
accommodate those who wish to assist in the meet. We will have a morning,
afternoon and evening shift on all days, except Sunday, for which there will
be no evening shift.

If you or yours wishes to sign up to help, please contact our volunteer
coordinator Amy Lee Copeland at Amy.Lee.Copeland@usdoj.gov. Any certified
officials who are interested in deck work may contact Shari Miltiades at
sanmil@csam.net. Both Amy Lee and Shari are out of town this week and will
respond to you next week.